The search for Dr Roparta.....

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Central America turned out to be full of drama for your Dynamic Duo. It started out like any of our adventures, full of food, maybe the odd tipple here and there, a bit of danger, before disaster struck twice.
We commenced our Tour of Duty in Antigua, Guatemala. Coming from the rations of Cuba, Antigua was a City of Dreams. Easy on the eye and stomach which was our priority. While there, in direct disobedience with all OSH guidelines, we scaled a living Volcano in our sandels, and proceeded to dance around the flowing lava while toasting marhmallows to appease the vengeful gods. We apparently did not toast enough. At our next stop in a famous market place, we were set upon by a gang of 20-30 ace ninjas, masterfully disguised as traditional old Guatemalan ladies. As they hussled around us, we did our best to pick them up and toss them aside, but there were too many and before we knew what was going on, they had relieved Shane of his burdensome wallet. As well as money lost, he lost his cherished Indoor Go-Kart Racing licence, his Oyster card, and a voucher for a 2-4-1 breakfast deal at the local cafe. Devastating. From there, the big guy and I went our seperate ways. He went in search of more jungle ruins, and as I was getting the feeling that I´d seen enough to be semi-literate on the subject, I stayed in a lakeside village to work on my Spanish surrounded by gringos of the tyedyed tshirt variety. We met up at the Honduran border and went across in search of some Diving.
We headed for Utilla Island, where it was a rigorous daily routine of get up, go diving in tropical waters, siesta in hammocks, go diving with some Rays, Turtles, and various fishes, back to the hammocks, meet up with the crew (a united nations of Israel, Switzerland and Germany. ruits for a bottle of Rum and BBQ, and repeat for a week. Somewhere, in amongst all of that, the 2nd big disaster of the trip occured. The events of that fateful day are still a bit blurry in my memory. I´m not sure who yelled the first insult, or threw the first faeces, but Shane got in a fight with a gang of monkeys and copped a load in his eye. The resulting infection had many reprecussions. We lost much time waiting for the local quacks to work their whodoo and fix the infection, but worst of all, once cured, Shane was left with some pretty impressive scar tissue over one pupil, leaving him with further loss of vision. Like a trooper, he carried on though.
Due to this we had to rush through quicker than anticipated, Niguragua, Costa Rica, And Panama, to make our flight to the final stage of the mission. In each of those countries we took full advantage of their westernisation, and toured shopping malls in amongst treks to the jungle or beaches. South America now beckons.

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Photos

Climbing the Volcano near Antigua
Was a wee bit foggy on the way up

Checking out the lava
It was flowing lava as well (slowly) but every now and then some sizeable blocks would break off and tumble down the mountain

Bat Caves 2
After many attempts this was the only photo I got with me and a bat in the same shot

Boat Crossing from Livingston
Was pouring down with rain, so we had to cover ourselves with plastic sheets. Felt like we were being smuggled across the border!

Utilia, Bay Islands, Honduras
The crew

Little bit of rain in La Ceiba
After 1hr of heavy rain the street was flooded!

Sam hard at work
Learning new landscaping techniques with a rather large machette

Cannopy Zip Line
Costa Rica

Panama Canal
Cargo ship passing through Miraflores Locks on the Canal

Comments

[Bess]

hehe
Awesome Guys - loved the tale telling samdog, hope your poo r eye mends itself soon shane - take care guys ;)

[Michael Towler]

THE MISSIN TINTIN
How goes it lucky! Firstly that has to be the biggest tarantula i have ever seen secondly the best wang eye i have seen too!! keep up the good work mate. A little while a go i saw the picture of you in ur work top and you no u can take sam out of lambeth but you cant take gardening out of sam! Bet you wished you took your work boots!! ha ha Anyways safe travals mate.